 Section 1 of the History of Amity, Montague, Vol. 2 by Francis Moore-Brook. Section 1. Letters 55-64. CAST LIST Arabella Fairmore, Read by Grace Buchanan. George Clayton, Read by Campbell Shalp. Edward Rivers, Read by Jim Locke. Emily Montague, Read by Emma Hatton. Narrated by Sonia. Letter 55. To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street. Cillory, January 16. So, my dear, we went on too fast, it seems. Sir George was so obliging as to settle all without waiting for Emily's consent, not having supposed her refusal to be in the chapter of possibilities. After having communicated their plans of operations to me as an affair settled, Papa was dispatched as Sir George's ambassador to inform Emily of his gracious intentions in her favor. She received him with proper dignity, and like a girl of true spirit, told him that as the delay was originally from Sir George, she should insist on observing the conditions very exactly, and was determined to wait till spring. Whatever might be the contents of Mrs. Clayton's expected letter. Reserving to herself also the privilege of refusing him even then, if upon mature deliberation she should think proper to do so. She has further insisted that till that time he shall leave Cillory, take up his abode in Quebec, unless, which she thinks most advisable, he should return to Montreal for the winter, and never attempt seeing her without witnesses, as their present situation is particularly delicate, and that whilst it continues they can have nothing to say to each other, which their common friends may not with propriety hear. All she can be prevailed on to consent to in his favor is to allow him on Entendant to visit here like any other gentleman. I wish she would send him back to Montreal, for I see plainly he will spoil all our little parties. Emily is a fine girl, Lucy, and I am friends with her again. So, my dear, I shall revive my coterie and be happy two or three months longer. I have sent to ask my two sweet fellows at Quebec to dine here. I really long to see them. I shall let them into the present state of affairs here, for they both despise Sir George as much as I do. The creature looks amazingly foolish, and I enjoy his humiliation, not a little. Such an animal to set up for being beloved indeed! Oh, to be sure! Emily has sent for me to her apartment. I do for a moment. 11 o'clock. She has shown me Mrs. Melmoth's letter on the subject of concluding the marriage immediately. It is in the true spirit of family impertinence. She writes with the kind, discreet insolence of a relation. And Emily has answered with the genuine spirit of an independent Englishwoman, who is so happy as to be her own mistress and who is therefore determined to think for herself. She has refused going to Montreal at all this winter and has hinted, though not impolitely, that she wants no guardian of her conduct but herself, adding a compliment to my ladieship's discretion so very civil. It is impossible for me to repeat it with decency. Heavens, your brethren fits Gerald! I fly! The dear creatures! My life has been absolute vegetation since they absented themselves. Adieu, my dear! You're faithful, eh, Fairmoor? Letter 56. To Miss River's Clarge's Street. Sillary, January 24. We have the same parties and amusements we used to have, my dear, but there is by no means the same spirit in them. Constraint and dullness seem to have taken the place of that sweet vivacity and confidence which made our little society so pleasing. This odious man has infected us all. He seems rather a spy on our pleasures than a partaker of them. He is more an antidote to joy than a tall maiden aunt. I wish he would go. I say spontaneously every time I see him without considering I am impolite. La, Sir George, when do you go to Montreal? He reddens and gives me a peevish answer and I then and not before recollect how very impertinent the question is. But pray, my dear, because he has no taste for social companionable life has he therefore a right to damp the spirit of it in those that have? I intend to consult some learned casualist on this head. He takes amazing pains to please in his way, is curled, powdered, perfumed and exhibits every day in a new suit of embroidery. But with all this has the mortification to see your brother please more in a plain coat. I am lazy, adieu. Yours ever and ever, ephemer. Letter 57 To John Temple, Esquire, Palmall, January 25th So you intend, my dear Jack, to marry when you are quite tired of a life of gallantry. The lady will be much obliged to you for a heart, the refuse of half the prostitutes in town, a heart the best feelings of which will be entirely obliterated, a heart hardened by a long commerce with the most unworthy of the sex in which will bring disgust, suspicion, coldness and depravity of taste to the bosom of sensibility and innocence. For my own part, though fond of women to the greatest degree, I have had, considering my profession and complexion, very few intrigues. I have always had an idea. I should sometime or other marry and have been unwilling to bring to a state in which I hoped for happiness from mutual affection, a heart worn out by a course of gallantries. To a contrary conduct is owing most of our unhappy marriages. The woman brings with her all her stock of tenderness, truth and affection. The man's is exhausted before they meet. She finds the generous delicate tenderness of her soul, not only unreturned but unobserved. She fancies some other woman, the object of his affection. She is unhappy. She pines in secret. He observes her discontent, accuses her of caprice, and her portion is wretchedness for life. I did not ardently wish your happiness. I should not thus repeatedly combat a prejudice, which as you have sensibility will infallibly make the greater part of your life a scene of insipidity and regret. You're right, Jack, as to the savages. The only way to civilize them is to feminize their women. But the task is rather difficult. At present, their manners differ in nothing from those of the men they even add to the ferocity of the latter. You desire to know the state of my heart. Excuse me, Jack. You know nothing of love and we who do never disclose its mysteries to the profane. Besides, I always choose a female for the confidant of my sentiments. I hate even to speak of love to one of my own sex. To you, I'm going a party with half a dozen ladies and have not another minute to spare. Yours, Ed Rivers. To Miss River's Clarges Street, January 28. I every hour, my dear, grow more in love with French manners. There is something charming in being young and sprightly all one's life. It would appear absurd in England to hear what I have just heard. A fat, virtuous lady of seventy toast love and opportunity to a young fellow. But there's nothing here. They dance, too, to the last gasp. I have seen the daughter, mother, and granddaughter in the same French country dance. They are perfectly right. And I honor them for their good sense and spirit in determining to make life agreeable as long as they can. I propose to age. I am resolved to go home, Lucy. I have found three gray hairs this morning. They tell me, tis common, this vile climate is at war with beauty. Makes one's hair gray and one's hands red. I won't stay, absolutely. Do you know there is a very pretty fellow here, Lucy? Captain Howard, who has taken a fancy to make people believe he and I are on good terms. He affects to sit by me, to dance with me, to whisper nothing to me, to bow with an air of mystery, and to show me all the little attentions of a lover in public, though he never yet said a civil thing to me when we were alone. I was standing with him this morning near the brow of the hill, leaning against a tree in the sunshine, and looking down the precipice below, when I said something of the lover's leap, and in play, as you will suppose, made a step forwards. We had been talking of indifferent things. His air was till then indolence itself, but on this little motion of mine, though there was not the least danger, he, with the utmost seeming eagerness, catch-told of me as if alarmed at the very idea, and with the most passionate air, protested his life depended on mine, and that he would not live an hour after me. I looked at him with astonishment, not being able to comprehend the meaning of this sudden flight. When turning my head, I saw a gentleman and lady close behind us, whom he had observed though I had not. They were retiring. Pray, approach, my dear madam, said I. We have no secrets. This declaration was intended for you to hear. We were talking of the weather before you came. He effected to smile though I saw he was mortified, but as his smile showed the finest teeth imaginable, I forgave him. He is really very handsome, and his pity he has this foolish quality of preferring the shadow to the substance. I shall, however, desire him to flirt elsewhere, as this bodinage, however innocent, may hurt my character, and give pain to my little Fitzgerald. I believe I begin to love this fellow, because I begin to be delicate on the subject of flirtations, and feel my spirit of coquetry decline every day. 29. Mrs. Clayton has wrote, my dear, and has at last condescended to allow Emily the honor of being her daughter-in-law, in consideration of her son's happiness, and of engagements entered into with her own consent, though she very prudently observes that what was a proper match for Captain Clayton is by no means so for Sir George, and talks something of an offer of a citizen's daughter with fifty thousand pounds, and the promise of an Irish title. She has, however, observed that indiscreet engagements are better broke than kept. Sir George has shown the letter, a very indelicate one in my opinion, to my father and me, and has talked a great deal of nonsense on the subject. He wants to show it to Emily, and I advise him to it, because I know the effect it will have. I see plainly he wishes to make great merit of keeping his engagement, if he does keep it. He hinted a little fear of breaking her heart, and I am convinced that if he thought she could survive his infidelity, all his tenderness and constancy would cede to filial duty and a coronet. Eleven o'clock, after much deliberation, Sir George has determined to write to Emily, enclose his mother's letter, and call in the afternoon to enjoy the triumph of his generosity in keeping his engagement when it is in his power to do so much better. It is a pretty plan, and I encourage him in it. My father, who wishes the match, shrugs his shoulders and frowns at me. But the little man is fixed as fate in his resolve, and is writing at this moment in my father's apartment. I long to see his letter. I dare say it will be a curiosity. Tis short, however, for he is coming out of the room already. Adieu, my father calls for this letter. It is to go in one of his to New York, and the person who takes it waits for it at the door. Ever yours, eh, Fairmore? Letter fifty-nine. To Miss Montague at Surrelly. Dear madam, I send you the enclosed from my mother. I thought it necessary you should see it, though not even a mother's wishes shall ever influence me to break those engagements which I have had the happiness of entering into with the most charming of women, and which a man of honour ought to hold sacred. I do not think happiness entirely dependent on rank or fortune, and have only to wish my mother sentiments on this subject more agreeable to my own as there is nothing I so much wish as to oblige her. At all events, however, depend on my fulfilling those promises which ought to be the more binding as they were made at a time when our situations were more equal. I am happy in an opportunity of convincing you and the world that interests and ambition have no power over my heart when put in competition with what I owe to my engagements, being with the greatest truth, my dearest madam, yours, etc. G. Clayton. You will do me the honour to name the day to make me happy. Letter sixty. To Sir George Clayton at Quebec. Dear sir, I have read Miss Clayton's letter with attention and am of her opinion that indiscreet engagements are better broken than kept. I have the less reason to take ill your breaking the kind of engagement between us at the desire of your family as I entered into it at first entirely in compliance with mine. I have ever had the sincerest esteem and friendship for you but never that romantic love which hurries to forget all but itself. I have therefore no reason to expect in you the most imprudent disinterestedness that passion occasions. A fuller explanation is necessary on this subject than is possible to enter into a letter. If you will favour us with your company this afternoon, at Solari, we may explain our sentiments more clearly to each other. Be assured, I will never prevent your complying in every instance with the wishes of so kind and prudent a mother. I am, dear sir, your affectionate friend and obedient servant. Emily Montague. Letter sixty one. To Miss River's Clarkes Street. I have been with Emily who has been reading Mrs. Clayton's letter. I saw Joy sparkle in her eyes as she went on. Her little heart seemed to flutter with transport. I see two things very clearly, one of which is that she never loved this little insipid baronette. The other, I leave your sagacity to find out. All the spirit of her countenance is returned. She walks in air. Her cheeks have the blush of pleasure. I never saw so astonishing a change. I never felt more joy from the acquisition of a new lover than she seems to find in the prospect of losing an old one. She has written to Sir George and in a style that I know will hurt him. For though I believe he wishes her to give him up, yet his vanity would desire it should cost her very dear and appear the effort of disinterested love and romantic generosity. Not what it really is, the effect of the most tranquil and perfect indifference. By the way, a disinterested mistress is, according to my ideas, a mistress who fancies she loves. We may talk what we please at a distance of sacrificing the dear man to his interest and promoting his happiness by destroying our own, but when it comes to the point, I am rather inclined to believe all women are of my way of thinking, and let me die if I would give up a man I loved to the first Duchess in Christendom. Tis all mighty well in theory, but for the practical part, let who will believe it for bell. Indeed, when a woman finds her lover inclined to change, Tis good to make a virtue of necessity and give the thing a sentimental turn, which gratifies his vanity and does not wound one's own. A do I see Sir George and his fine carry-o. I must run and tell Emily, ever yours, a farmer. To Miss Rivers, Claridge's Street, January 28. Yes, my Lucie, your brother tenderly regrets the absence of a sister endeared to him much more by her amiable qualities than by blood, who would be the object of his esteem and admiration if she was not that of his fraternal tenderness, who has all the blooming graces, simplicity and innocence of nineteen, with the accomplishments and understanding of five and twenty, who joins the strength of mind so often confined to our sex through the softness, delicacy, and the vassity of her own, who in short is all that is estimable and lovely, and who except one is the most charming of her sex, you will forgive the exception, Lucie, perhaps no man but a brother would make it. My sweet Emily appears every day more amiable. She is now in the full tyranny of her charms at the age when the mind is improved and the person in its perfection. I every day see in her more indifference to her lover a circumstance which gives me a pleasure, which perhaps it ought not. There is a selfishness in it for which I am afraid I ought to blush. You judge perfectly well, my dear, in checking the natural vassity of your temper. However pleasing it is to all who converse with you, coquetry is dangerous to English women because they have sensibility. It is more suited to the French, who are naturally something of the salamander kind. I have this moment to note from Belle, firmer that she must see me this instant. I hope my Emily as well. Heaven preserve the most perfect of all its work. So do you, my dear girl, your affectionate Ed Rivers? Letter 63 To Miss Rivers Clarges Street, February 1 We have past three or four droll days, my dear. Emily persists in resolving to break with Sir George. He thinks it decent to combat her resolution, lest he should lose the praise of generosity. He is also peaked to see her give him up with such perfect composure. Though I am convinced he will not be sorry upon the whole to be given up. He has, from the first receipt of the letter, plainly wished her to resign him, but hoped for a few faintings and tears as a sacrifice to his vanity on the occasion. My father is setting every engine at work to make things up again, supposing Emily to have determined from peak, not from the real feelings of her heart. He is frightened to death lest I should counter work him, and so jealous of my advising her to continue a conduct he so much disapproves, that he won't leave us a moment together. He even observes carefully that each goes into her respective apartment when we retire to bed. This jealousy has started an idea, which I think will amuse us, and which I shall take the first opportunity of communicating to Emily, tis to write each other at night our sentiments on whatever passes in the day. If she approves the plan, I will send you the letters, which will save me a great deal of trouble in telling you all of our petty histoire. This scheme will have another advantage. We shall be a thousand times more sincere and open to each other by letter than face to face. I have long seen by her eyes that the little fool has twenty things to say to me, but has not the courage. Now letters, you know my dear, excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart. Besides, it will be so romantic and pretty, almost as agreeable as a love affair. I long to begin the correspondence, a few yours a fair more. Letter sixty-four. To Miss Rivers, Clarge's Street, Quebec, February 5th. I have but a moment, my Lucy, to tell you my divine Emily has broke with her lover, who this morning took an eternal leave of her and set out for Montreal in his way to New York when she proposes to embark for England. My sensations on this occasion are not to be described. I admire that amiable delicacy which has influenced her to give up every advantage of rank and fortune which could tempt the heart of woman rather than unite herself to a man for whom she felt the least degree of indifference and this without regarding the centuries of her family or of the world by whom what they will call her imprudence will never be forgiven. A woman who is capable of acting so nobly is worthy of being beloved, of being adored by every man who has a soul to distinguish her perfections. If I was a vain man I might perhaps fancy her regard for me had some share in determining her conduct but I am convinced of the contrary it is the native delicacy of her soul alone incapable of forming an union in which the heart has no share which independent of any other consideration has been the cause of a resolution so worthy of herself. That she has the tenderness affection for me I cannot doubt one moment her attention is too flattering to be unobserved but it is that kind of affection in which the mind alone is concerned I never gave her the most distant hint that I loved her in her situation it would have been even an outrage to have done so she knows the narrowness of my circumstances and how near impossible it is for me to marry she therefore could not have an idea no my dear girl it is not to love but to true delicacy that she has sacrificed avarice and ambition and she is a thousand times the more estimable from this circumstance I am interrupted you shall hear from me in a few days adieu your affectionate Ed Rivers End of Section 1 Section 2 of the history of Emily Montague Volume 2 by Francis Moore Brook this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Section 2 Letter 65 to 74 Cast List Arabella Fermor read by Grace Buchanan Emily Montague read by Emma Hatton Edward Rivers read by Jim Locke Lucy Rivers read by Leanne Yau Mrs. E. Belmoth read by Beth Thomas William Fermor read by Vanessa narrated by Sonia Letter 65 to Miss Rivers Clarges Street Ciliary, February 10 I have mentioned my plan to Emily who is charmed with it it is a pretty evening amusement for two solitary girls in the country behold the first fruits of our correspondence to Miss Fermor it is not to you my dear girl I need vindicate my conduct in regard to Sir George you have from the first approved it you have even advised it if I have been to blame tis in having too long delayed an explanation on a point of such importance to us both I have been long on the borders of a precipice without courage to retire from so dangerous a situation overborn by my family I have been near marrying a man for whom I have not the least tenderness and whose conversation is even now tedious to me my dear friend we were not formed for each other our minds have not the least resemblance have you not observed that when I have timidly hazarded my ideas on the delicacy necessary to keep love alive in marriage and the difficulty of preserving the heart of the object beloved in so intimate a union he has indolently ascended with a coldness not to be described to sentiments which it is plain from his manner he did not understand wilson other not interested in the conversation has by his countenance by the fire of his eyes by looks more eloquent than all language should his soul was intelligence with mine a strong sense of the force of engagements entered into with my consent though not the effect of my free unbiased choice and the fear of making sir George by whom I suppose myself beloved unhappy have thus long prevented my resolving to break with him forever and though I could not bring myself to marry him I found myself at the same time incapable of assuming sufficient resolution to tell him so till his mother's letter gave me so happy an occasion there is no saying what transport I feel in being freed from this insupportable yoke of this engagement which has long sat heavy on my heart and suspended the natural cheerfulness of my temper yes my dear your Emily has been wretched without daring to confess it even to you I was ashamed of owning I had entered into such engagements with a man whom I had never loved though I had for a short time mistaken esteem for a greater degree of affection than my heart ever really knew how fatal my dear bell is this mistake to half our sex and how happy I am to discover mine in time I have scarce yet asked myself what I intend but I think it would be most prudent to return to England in the first ship and retire to a relation of my mother's in the country where I can live with decency on my little fortune whatever is my fate no situation be equally unhappy with that of being a wife to a man whom I have never the slightest friendship or esteem for whose conversation I have not the least taste and who if I know him would forever think me under an obligation to him for marrying me I have the pleasure to see I give no pain to his heart by a step which has relieved mine from misery his feelings are those of wounded vanity not of love had you, your Emily Montague I have no patience with relations Lucy this sweet girl has been two years wretched under the bondage her uncle's avarice for he foresaw Sir George's acquisition though she did not prepared for her parents should choose our company but never even pretend to direct our choice if they take care we converse with men of honor only it is impossible we can choose a miss a conformity of taste and sentiment alone can make marriage happy and of that none but the parties concerned can judge by the way I think long engagements even between persons who love extremely unfavorable to happiness it is certainly right to be long enough acquainted to know something of each other's temper but his bad to let the first fire burn out before we come together and when we have once resolved I have no notion of delaying a moment if I should ever consent to marry Fitzgerald and he should not fly for a license before I had finished the sentence I would dismiss him if there was not another lover to be had in Canada adieu, you're faithful eh Fairmore my Emily is now free as air a sweet little bird escaped from the gilded cage are you not glad of it Lucy I am amazingly angry letter 66 to Miss Rivers Clarge Street Quebec February 11th would one think it possible Lucy that Sir George should console himself with a loss of all that is lovely and woman by the sordid prospect of acquiring by an interested marriage a little more of that wealth of which he has already much more than he can either enjoy or become by what wretched motives are half mankind influenced in the most important action of their lives the vulgar of every rank expect happiness where it is not to be found in the ideal advantages of splendor and dissipation those who dare to think those minds who partake of the celestial fire seek it in the real solid pleasures of nature and soft affection I have seen my lovely Emily since I wrote to you I shall not see her again of some days I do not intend at present to make my visits to Celery so frequent as I have done lately lest the world ever studious to blame should misconstrue her conduct on this very delicate occasion I am even afraid to show my usual attention to her when present lest she herself should think I presume on the politeness she has ever shown me and see her breaking with Sir George in a false light the greater I think her obliging partiality to me the more guarded I ought to be in my behavior to her her situation has some resemblance to widowhood and she has equal decorums to observe I cannot however help encouraging a pleasing hope that I am not absolutely indifferent to her her lovely eyes have a softness when they meet mine to which words cannot do justice she talks less to me than to others but it is in a tone of voice which penetrates my soul and when I speak her attention is most flattering of a nature not to be seen by common observers without seeming to distinguish me from the crowd who strive to engage her esteem and friendship she has a manner of addressing me which the heart alone can feel she contrives to prevent my appearing to give her any preference to the rest of her sex yet I have seen her blush at my civility to another she has at least a friendship for me which alone would make the happiness of my life and which I would prefer to the love of the most charming woman imagination could form sensible as I am to the sweetest of all passions this friendship however time and acidity may ripen into love at least I should be most happy if I did not think so I love her with a tenderness to the sex are capable you have often told me and you were right that my heart has all the sensibility of woman a mail has arrived by which I hope to hear from you I must hurry to the post office you shall hear again in a few days adieu your affectionate Ed Rivers letter 67 to Colonel Rivers at Quebec first you need to be in no pain my dear brother on Mr. Temple's account my heart is in no danger from a man of his present character his person and manner are certainly extremely pleasing his understanding and I believe his principles are worthy of your friendship an encomium which let me observe is from me a very high one he will be admired everywhere but to be beloved he wants or at least to want the most endearing of all qualities that genuine tenderness of soul that almost feminine sensibility which with all your firmness of mind and spirit you possess beyond any man I ever yet met with if your friend wishes to please me which I almost fancy he does he must endeavor to resemble you just rather hard upon me I think that the only man I perfectly approve and whose disposition is formed to make me happy should be my brother I beg you will find out somebody very like yourself for your sister for you have really made me saucy I pity you heartily and wish above all things to hear of your Emily's marriage for your present situation must be extremely unpleasant but my dear brother as you were so very wise about Temple allow me to ask you whether it is quite consistent with prudence to throw yourself in the way of a women to inspire you with tenderness and whom it is so impossible you can ever hope to possess it's not this acting a little like a foolish girl who plays around the flame which she knows will consume her my mother as well but will never be happy till you return to England I often find her in tears over your letters I will say no more on a subject which I know will give you pain I hope however to hear you have given up all thoughts of settling in America it would be a better plan to turn farmer in Rutland we could double the estate by living upon it and I am sure I should make the prettiest milkmaid in the country I am serious and think we could live very superbly all together in the country consider it well my dear Ned for I cannot bear to see my mother so unhappy as your absence makes her I hear her on the stairs I must hurry away my letter for I don't choose you should know I write to you on this subject adieu your factionate Lucy Rivers say everything for me to bell firmer and in your own manner to your Emily in whose friendship I promise myself great happiness letter 68 to Miss Montague at Solari Montreal February 10 never has any astonishment equal mine my dear Emily at hearing you had broken engagement of years so much to your advantage as to fortune and with a man of so very unexceptionable a character as Sir George without any other apparent cause than a slight indelicacy in a letter of his mother's for which candor and affection would have found a thousand excuses I will not allow myself to suppose what is however publicly said here that you have sacrificed prudence decorum and I had almost said honour to an imprudent inclination for a man to whom there is the strongest reason to believe you are indifferent and who is even said to have an attachment to another I mean Colonel Rivers who though a man of worth is in a situation which makes it impossible for him to think of you where you even as dear to him as the world says he is to you I am too unhappy to say more on this subject but expect from our past friendship a very sincere answer to two questions where the love for Colonel Rivers was the real motive for the indiscreet step you have taken and whether if it was you have the excuse of knowing he loves you I should be glad to know what are your views if you have any I am my dear Emily your affectionate friend E. Melmoth Letter 69 To Mrs. Melmoth at Montreal Salieri February 19th My dear madam I am too sensible of the rights of friendship to refuse answering your questions which I shall do in as few words as possible I have not the least reason to suppose myself beloved by Colonel Rivers nor if I know my heart do I love him in that sense of word your question supposes I think him the best the most amiable of mankind in my extreme affection for him though I believe that affection only a very lively friendship first awaken me to a sense of the indelicacy and impropriety of marrying Sir George to enter into so sacred engagement as marriage with one man with a stronger affection for another of how calm and innocent nature so ever that affection may be his a degree of baseness of which my heart is incapable when I first agreed to marry Sir George I had no superior esteem for any other man I thought highly of him and wanted courage to resist the pressing solicitations of my uncle to whom I had a thousand obligations I even almost persuaded myself I loved him did I find my mistake till I saw Colonel Rivers in whose conversation I had so lively a pleasure as soon convinced me of my mistake I therefore resolved to break with Sir George and nothing but the fear of giving him pain prevented my doing it sooner his behavior on the receipt of his mother's letter removed that fear and set me free in my own opinion and I hope well in yours from engagements which were equally in the way of my happiness and his ambition if he is sincere he will tell you my refusal of him made him happy though he chooses to affect a chagrin which he does not feel I have no view but that of returning to England in the spring and fixing with the relation in the country if Colonel Rivers has an attachment I hope it is to one worthy of him for my own part I never entertain the remotest thought of him in any light but that of the most sincere and tender of friends I am madam with great esteem your affectionate friend an obedient servant Emily Montague letter 70 to Miss Rivers Clarges Street Ciliary February 27 there are two parties at Quebec in regard to Emily the prudent mamas abuse her for losing a good match and suppose it to proceed from her partiality to your brother to the imprudence of which they give no quarter whilst the misses admire her generosity and spirit in sacrificing all for love so impossible it is to please everybody however she has in my opinion done the wisest thing in the world that is she has pleased herself as to her inclination for your brother I am of their opinion that she loves him without being quite clear in the point herself she has not yet confessed the fact even to me but she has speaking eyes Lucy and I think I can interpret their language whether he sees it or not I cannot tell I rather think he does because he has been less here and more guarded in his manner when here than before this matrimonial affair was put an end to which is natural enough on that supposition because he knows the impertinence of Quebec and is both prudent and delicate to a great degree he comes however and we are pretty good company only a little more reserved on both sides which is in my opinion a little symptomatic la here's papa come up to write at my bureau I dare say it's only to pry into what I am about but excuse me my dear sir for that adieu je compte ma ma tricheur yours a vermore letter 71 to Miss Rivers, largest street Quebec February 20th every hour my Lucy convinces me more clearly there is no happiness for me without this lovely woman her turn of mind is so correspondent to my own that we seem to have but one soul the first moment I saw her the idea struck me that we had been friends in some pre-existent state and we're only renewing our acquaintance here when she speaks my heart vibrates to the sound and owns every thought she expresses a native there the same dear affections the same tender sensibility the most precious gift of heaven inform our minds and make us peculiarly capable of exquisite happiness or misery the passions my Lucy are common to all but the affections the lively sweet affections the only sources of true pleasure are the portion only of a chosen few uncertain at present of the nature of her sentiments I'm determined to develop them clearly before I discover mine if she loves as I do even a perpetual exile here we'll be pleasing the remotest wood in Canada with her would be no longer a desert wild it would be the habitation of the graces but I forget your letter my dear girl I'm hurt beyond words at what you tell me of my mother and would instantly return to England did not my fondness for this charming woman detain me here you are both too good and wishing to retire with me to the country will your tenderness lead you a step farther my Lucy it would be too much to hope to see you here and yet if I marry Emily it will be impossible for me to think of going to England there is a man here whom I should prefer of all men I ever saw for you but he is already attached to your friend Bell firmer who is very inattentive to her own happiness if she refuses him I'm very happy in finding you think of temple as I wish you should you are so very civil Lucy in regard to me I'm afraid of becoming vain from your praises take care you don't spoil me by this excess of civility for my only merit is that of not being a cox comb I have a heaviness of heart which has never left me since I read your letter I'm shocked at the idea of giving pain to the best parent that ever existed yet have less hope than ever of seeing England without giving up the tender friend the dear companion the adored mistress and short the very woman I have all my life been searched up I'm also hurt that I cannot place this object of all my wishes in a station equal to that she has rejected and I begin to think rejected for me I never before repined at seeing the gifts of fortune lavished on the unworthy I do my dear I will write again when I can write more cheerfully your affectionate at rivers letter 72 to the Earl of Blank Celery February 20 my lord your lordship does me great honor in supposing me capable of giving any satisfactory account of a country in which I have spent only a few months as a proof however of my zeal and the very strong desire I have to merit the esteem you honor me with I shall communicate from time to time the little I have observed and may observe as well as what I hear from good authority with it lively pleasure with which I have ever obeyed every command of your lordships the French in the first settling this colony seemed to have an eye only to the conquest of ours their whole system of policy seems to have been military not commercial or only so far commercial as was necessary to supply the wants and by so doing to gain the friendship of the savages in order to make use of them against us the lands are held on military tenure every peasant is a soldier every senior an officer and both serve without pay whenever called upon the services except a very small quit rent by way of acknowledgement all they pay for their lands the senior holds of the crown the peasant of the senior who was at once his lord and commander the peasants are in general tall and robust not withstanding their excessive indolence they love war and hate labor are brave hardy alert in the field but lazy and inactive at home in which they resemble the savages whose matters they seem strongly to have imbibed the government appears to have encouraged a military spirit all over the colony though ignorant and stupid to a great degree these peasants have a strong sense of honor and though they serve as I have said without pay are never so happy as when called to the field they are excessively vain and not only look on the French as the only civilized nation in the world but on themselves as the flower of the French nation they had I am told a great aversion to the regular troops came from France in the late war and it contempt equal to that aversion they however had an affection and esteem for the late Marquis de Moncombe which almost rose to idolatry and I have even at this distance of time seen many of them in tears at the mention of his name an honest tribute to the memory of a commander equally brave and humane for whom his enemies wept even on the day when their own hero fell I am called upon for this letter and have only time to assure your lordship of my respect and of the pleasure I always receive from your commands I have the honor to be my lord your lordships etc. William Firmore Letter 73 To Miss Firmore February 24th 11 at night I have indeed my dear a pleasure in his conversation to which words cannot do justice love itself is less tender and lively than my friendship for rivers from the first moment I saw him I lost all taste of other conversation even yours amiable as you are borrows its most prevailing charm from the pleasure of hearing you talk of him when I call my tenderness for him friendship I do not mean either to paint myself as an enemy to tender sentiments or him as one whom it is easy to see without feeling them all I mean is that our situations make it impossible for us to think of each other except as friends I have endeavored I hope with success to see him in no other light it is not in his power to marry without fortune and mine is a trifle had I worlds they should be his but I am neither so selfish as to desire nor so romantic as to expect that he should descend from the rank of life he has been bred in and live lost to the world with me as to the impertinence of two or three women I hear of it with perfect indifference my dear rivers esteems me he approved my conduct and all else is below my care the applause of worlds would give me less pleasure than one smile of appropriation from him I am astonished your father should know me so little as to suppose me capable of being influenced even by you when I determine to refuse her George it was from the feelings of my own heart alone the first moment I saw Colonel Rivers convince me my heart had till then been a stranger to true tenderness from that moment my life has been one continued struggle between my reason which showed me the foley as well as indecency of marrying one man when I so infinitely preferred another and a false point of honour and mistaken compassion from which painful state a concurrence of favourable accidents has at length happily relieved me and left me free to act as becomes me here be assured that though I have not the least idea of marrying Colonel Rivers yet whilst my sentiments for him continue what they are I will never marry another man I am hurt at what Mrs. Melmoth hinted in her letter to you of rivers having appeared to attach himself to me from vanity she endeavors in vain to destroy my esteem for him you well know he never did appear to attach himself to me he's incapable of having done it from such a motive but if he had such delight in having whatever pleases him that I should with joy have sacrificed my own vanity to gratify his adieu your Emily Montague that does 74 to Miss Montague February 25 8 o'clock just up my dear you deceive yourself you love Colonel Rivers you love him even with all the tenderness of romance read over again the latter part of your letter I know friendship and of what it is capable but I fear the sacrifices it makes are of a different nature examine your heart my Emily and tell me the result of that examination it is of the utmost consequence to you to be clear as to the nature of your affection for Rivers adieu yours a fair more End of section 2 section 3 of the history of Emily Montague volume 2 by Francis Moore Brook this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org section 3 letter 75 to 84 cast list Emily Montague read by Emma Hatton Arabella Fermor read by Grace Buchanan Edward Rivers read by Jim Locke narrated by Sonia letter 75 to Miss Fermor yes my dear Belle you know me better than I know myself your Emily loves but tell me and with clear sincerity which is the cement of our friendship has not your own heart discovered to you the secret of mine you also love this most amiable of mankind yes you do and I am lost it is not in woman to see him without love there are a thousand charms in his conversation in his look, nay in the very sound of his voice to which it is impossible for a soul like yours to be insensible I have observed you a thousand times listening to him without air of softness and complacency believe me my dear I am not angry with you for loving him he is formed to charm the heart of woman I have not the least right to complain of you you knew nothing of my passion for him you even regarded me almost as the wife of another but tell me though my heart dies within me at the question is your tenderness mutual does he love you I have observed a coldness in his manner lately which now alarms me my heart is torn in pieces must I receive this wound from the two persons on earth most dear to me indeed my dear this is more than what Emily can bear tell me only whether you love I will not ask more is there on earth a man who can please where he appears letter 76 to Miss Montague you have discovered me my sweet Emily I love not quite so dyingly as you do but I love will you forgive me when I add that I am necessary to add the name of him I love as you have so kindly appropriated the whole sex to Colonel Rivers however to show you it is possible you may be mistaken is the little fits I love who in my eye is ten times more agreeable than even your non-pareil of a Colonel I know you will think me a shocking wretch for this depravity of taste but so it is upon my word I am half inclined to be angry with you for not being in love with Fitzgerald a tall Irishman with good eyes has as clear a title to make conquests as other people yes my dear there is a man on earth and even in the little town of Quebec who can please where he appears surely child if there was but one man on earth who could please you would not be so unreasonable as to engross him all to yourself for my part though I like Fitzgerald extremely I by no means insist that every other woman shall go you are a foolish girl and don't know what you would be at Rivers is a very handsome agreeable fellow but it is in woman to see him without dying for love of which behold your little Bell an example adieu be wiser and believe me ever yours a fair more will you go this morning to Montmorency on the ice and dine on the island of Orleans dare you trust yourself in a covered adieu with the dear man don't answer this because I am certain you can say nothing on the subject which will not be very foolish 77 to miss firmer I'm glad you do not see Colonel Rivers with my eyes yet it seems to me very strange I am almost piqued as you're giving another the preference I will say no more it being as you observed impossible to avoid being absurd on such a subject I will go to Montmorency and to shoe my courage will venture in a covered carrier with Colonel Rivers though I should rather wish your father for my cavalier at present yours Emily Montague 78 to miss Montague you are right my dear tis more prudent to go with my father I love prudence then for mademoiselle Clairot to be Riversville yours a firmore 79 to miss firmer you are provoking chit and I will go with rivers your father may attend Madame Villiers who you know will naturally take it ill if she is not of our party we can ask mademoiselle Clairot another time how do you your Emily Montague 80 to miss rivers clarges street Ciliary February 25 those who have heard no more of a Canadian winter than what regards the intensness of its cold must suppose at a very joyless season tis I assure you quite otherwise there are indeed some days here of the severity of which those who were never out of England can form no conception but those days seldom exceed a dozen in a whole winter nor do they come in succession but at intermediate periods as the winds set in from the northwest which coming some hundred leagues from frozen lakes and rivers over woods and mountains covered with snow would be insupportable were it not for the furs with which the country abounds in such variety and plenty as to be within the reach of all its inhabitants thus defended the British bells set the winter of Canada at defiance and the season of which you seem to entertain such terrible ideas is that of the utmost cheerfulness and festivity but what particularly pleases me is there is no place where women are of such importance not one of the sex who has the least share of attractions is without a levy of beau interceding for the honour of attending her on some party of which every day produces three or four I am just returned from one of the most agreeable jaunts imagination can paint to the island of Orleans by the falls of Montmorency the latter is almost nine miles distant across the great basin of Quebec but as we are obliged to reach it in winter by the waving line our direct road being intercepted by the inequalities of the ice it is now perhaps a third more you will possibly suppose a ride of this kind must want one of the greatest essentials of entertainment that of variety and imagine it only one dull whirl over an unvaried plane of snow on the contrary my dear we pass hills and mountains of ice in the trifling space of these few miles the basin of Quebec is formed by the calm flux of the rivers of Montmorency with the great river St. Lawrence the rapidity of whose flood tide as these rivers are gradually seized by the frost breaks up the ice and drives it back in heaps till it forms ridges of transparent rock to a height that is astonishing and of a strength which bids defiance on the most rage of the most furiously rushing tide this circumstance makes this little journey more pleasing than you can possibly conceive the serene blue sky above the dazzling brightness of the sun and the colors from the refraction of its rays on the transparent part of these ridges of ice the winding course these oblige you to make the sudden disappearing of a train of fifteen or twenty carriers as these ridges intervene which again discover themselves on your rising to the top of the frozen mount the tremendous appearance both of the ascent and descent which however are not attended with the least danger altogether give a pure and variety to the scene which almost rise to enchantment your dull foggy climate affords nothing that can give you the least idea of our frost pieces in Canada nor can you form any notion of our amusements of the agreeableness of a covered carrier with a sprightly fellow rendered more sprightly by the keen air and romantic scene about him to say nothing of the fair lady at his side even an overturning has nothing alarming in it you are laid gently down on a soft bed of snow without the least danger of any kind and an accident of this sort only gives a pretty fellow occasion to vary the style of his abilities and show a greater degree of attention but it is almost time to come to Montmorency to avoid however fatiguing you or myself I shall refer the rest of our tour to another letter which will probably accompany this my meaning is that two moderate letters are vastly better than one long one in which sentiment will be with yours a fair more letter 81 to miss rivers clarges street ciliary february 25 afternoon so my dear as I was saying this same ride to Montmorency where was I lucy I forget oh I believe pretty near the mouth of the bay embosomed in which lies give you a winter description and which I only slightly mentioned when I gave you an account of the rivers by which it is supplied the road about a mile before you reach this bay is a regular glassy level without any of those intervening hills of ice which I have mentioned hills which with the ideas though false ones of danger and difficulty give those of beauty proportions too as you gradually approach the bay you are struck with an awe which increases every moment as you come nearer from the grandeur of a scene which is one of the noblest works of nature the beauty the proportion the salinity the wild magnificence of which surpassing every possible effect of art one strongly with the idea of its divine almighty architect the rock on the east side which is first in view as you approach is a smooth and almost perpendicular precipice of the same height as the fall the top which a little overhangs is beautifully covered with pines furs and evergreens of various kinds whose verdant luster is rendered at this season more shining and lovely by the surrounding snow as well as by that which is sprinkled irregularly on their branches and glitters half melted in the sunbeams a thousand smaller shrubs are scattered on the side of the ascent and having their roots in almost the rock seem to those below to grow in air the west side is equally lofty but more sloping which from that circumstance affords soil all the way upon shelving inequalities of the rock at little distances for the growth of trees and shrubs by which it is almost entirely hid the most pleasing view of this miracle of nature is certainly in summer and in the early part of it when every tree is in foliage and full verdure every shrub in flower and when the river swelled with a waste of waters from the mountains from which it derives its source pours down in a tumultuous torrent that equally charms and astonishes the beholder the winter scene has notwithstanding its beauties though of a different kind more resembling the stillness and inactivity of the season the river being on its sides bound up in frost and its channel rendered narrower than in the summer affords a less body of water to supply the cascade and the fall though very steep yet not being exactly perpendicular masses of ice are formed on different shelving projections of the rock in a great variety of forms and proportions the torrent which before rushed with such impetuosity down the deep descent in one vast sheet of water now descends in some parts with a slow and majestic pace in others seems almost suspended in mid-air and in others bursting through the obstacles which interrupt its course pours down with redoubled fury into the foaming basin below from whence a spray arises which freezing in its ascent becomes on each side a wide and irregular frozen breast work front the spray being there much greater a lofty and magnificent pyramid of solid ice I have not told you half the grandeur half the beauty half the lovely wildness of this scene if you would know what it is you must take no information but that of your own eyes which I pronounce strangers the loveliest work of creation till they have seen the river and fall of Montmorency in short my dear I am Montmorency mad I can hardly descend to tell you we passed the ice from thence to Orleans and dined out of doors on six feet of snow in the charming and livening warmth of the sun in the month of February at a time when you in England scarce feel its beams Fitzgerald made violent love to me all the way and I never felt myself listen with such complacency adieu I have written two immense letters right oftener you are lazy you expect me to be an absolute slave in the way you're faithful do you know your brother has admirable ideas he contrived to lose his way on our return and kept Emily ten minutes behind the rest of the company I am apt to fancy there was something like a declaration for she blushed celestial rosy red when he led her into the home atcillary once more adieu letter 82 to Miss Rivers Clarges Street March 1 I was mistaken my dear not a word of love between your brother and Emily as she positively assures me something very tender has passed I am convinced not withstanding for she blushes more than he approaches and there is a certain softness in his voice when he addresses her which cannot escape a person of my penetration do you know my dear Lucy that there is a little impertinent girl here a mademoiselle Clairot who on the mere merit of features and complexion sets up for being as handsome as Emily and me if beauty as I will take the liberty to assert is given us for the purpose of pleasing she who pleases most that is to say she who excites the most passion is to all intense and purposes the most beautiful woman and in this case I am inclined to believe your little bell stands pretty high on the role of beauty the men's eyes may perhaps say she is handsome but their hearts feel that I am so there is in general nothing so insipid so uninteresting as a beauty which those men experience to their cost who choose from vanity not inclination I remember sir Charles Herbert a captain in the same regiment with my father who determined to marry Miss Raymond before he saw her merely because he had been told she was a celebrated beauty though she was never known to have inspired of real passion he saw her not with his own eyes but those of the public took her charms on trust and till he was her husband never found out she was not his taste a secret however of some little importance to his happiness I have however known some beauties who had a right to please that is who had a mixture of that invisible charm that nameless grace which by no means depends on beauty and which strikes the heart in a moment but my first aversion is your fine women don't you think a fine woman a detestable creature Lucy I do they are vastly well to fill public places but as to the heart heavens my dear yet there are men I suppose to be found taste for the great sublime in beauty men are vastly foolish my dear very few of them have spirit to think for themselves there are a thousand sir Charles Herbert's I have seen some of them weak enough to decline marrying the woman on earth most pleasing to themselves because not thought by the generality of their companions women are above this folly and therefore choose much oftener from affection than men we are a thousand times wiser Lucy than these important beings these mighty lords who strut and fret their hour upon the stage and instead of playing the part in life which nature dictates to their reason and their hearts act a borrowed one at the will of others I had rather even judge ill than not judge for myself I do yours ever a fair more letter 83 to Miss Rivers Clark's Street Quebec March 4th after debating myself some days I'm determined to pursue Emily but before I make a declaration we'll go to see some ungranted lands at the back of Madame de Roche's estate which lying on a very fine river and so near the St. Lawrence may I think be cultivated at less expense than those above Lake Champlain though in a much inferior climate my settlement here I will purchase the estate Madame de Roche has to sell which will open me a road to the river of St. Lawrence and consequently treble the value of my lands I love I adore this charming woman but I will not suffer my tenderness for her to make her unhappy or to lower her station in life if I can by my present plan secure her what will this country be a degree of affluence I will endeavour to change her friendship for me into a tenderer and more lively affection if she loves I know by my own heart that Canada will be no longer a place of exile if I have flattered myself and she has only a friendship for me I will return immediately to England and retire with you and my mother to our little estate in the country you will perhaps say why not make Emily of our party I am almost ashamed to speak plain but so weak are we and so guided by the prejudices we fancy we despise that I cannot bear my Emily after refusing a coach and six should live without an equip suitable at least to her birth and the manner in which she has always lived when in England I know this is folly that it is a despicable pride but it is a folly a pride I cannot conquer there are moments when I am above all this childish prejudice but it returns upon me in spite of myself will you come to us my Lucy tell my mother I will build her a rustic palace and settle a little principality on you both I make this a private excursion because I don't choose anybody should even guess at my views I shall set out in the evening and make a circuit to cross the river above the town I shall not even take leave at Celery as I propose being back in four days and I know your friend Belle will be inquisitive about my journey adieu your affectionate Ed Rivers letter 84 no one nobody knows wither and without calling upon us before he set off we are peaked I assure you my dear and with some little reason four o'clock very strange news Lucy they say Colonel Rivers is gone to marry Madame de Roche a lady at whose house he was some time in autumn this is true I foreswear the whole sex his manner of stealing off is certainly very odd and she is rich and agreeable but if he does not love Emily he has been excessively cruel in showing an attention which has deceived her into a passion for him I cannot believe it possible not that he has ever told her he loved her and of honor will not tell an untruth even with his eyes and hives have spoke a very unequivocal language I never saw anything like her confusion when she was told he was gone to visit Madame de Roche but when it was hinted with what design I was obliged to take her out of the room or she would have discovered all the fondness of her soul I really thought she would have fainted as I led her out eight o'clock I have sent away all the men and drank tea in Emily's apartment she has scarce spoke to me I am miserable for her she has a paleness which alarms me the tears steal every moment into her lovely eyes can rivers act so unworthy apart her tenderness cannot have been unobserved by him it was too visible to everybody ninth, ten o'clock not a line from your brother yet only a confirmation of his being with Madame de Roche having been seen there by some Canadians who are come up this morning I am not quite pleased though I do not believe the report he might have told us surely where he was going I pity Emily beyond words she says nothing but there is a dumb eloquence in her countenance which is not to be described twelve o'clock I have been an hour alone with the dear girl who has from a hint I dropped on purpose take encourage to speak to me on this very interesting subject she says she shall be most unhappy if this report is true though without the least right to complain of Colonel Rivers who never even hinted a word of any affection for her more tender than friendship that if her vanity her self-love or her tenderness have deceived her she ought only to blame herself she added that she wished him to marry Madame de Roche if she could make him happy but when she said this an involuntary tear seemed to contradict the generosity of her sentiments I beg your pardon my dear but my esteem for your brother is greatly lessened I cannot help fearing there is something in the report and that this is what Mrs. Melmouth meant when she mentioned his having an attachment I shall begin to hate the whole sex Lucy if I find your brother unworthy and shall give Fitzgerald immediately I am afraid Mrs. Melmouth knows men better than we foolish girls do she said he attached himself to Emily merely from vanity and I begin to believe she was right how cruel is this conduct the man who from vanity or perhaps only to amuse an idle hour can appear to be attached where he is not by that means seduce the heart of a deserving woman or indeed of any woman falls in my opinion very little short in baseness of him who practices a greater degree of seduction what right has he to make the most amiable of women wretched a woman who would have deserved him had he been monarch of the universal world I might add who has sacrificed ease and affluence to her tenderness for him you will excuse my warmth on such an occasion however as it may give you pain I will say no more adieu you're faithful eh vermore End of Section 3 Section 4 of the history of Emily Montague Section 2 by Francis Moore Brook this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Section 4 Letters 85 to 94 Cast List Edward Rivers read by Jim Locke Arabella Fairmore read by Grace Buchanan William Firmore read by Kevin S Mrs. E. Belmoth read by Beth Thomas Emily Montague read by Emma Hatton Narrated by Sonia Letter 85 To Miss Rivers, Clarge's Street Carr Marascus March 12th I've met with something my dear Lucy which has given me infinite uneasiness from my extreme zeal to serve her in an affair wherein she has been hardly used for my second visit and a certain involuntary attention and softness of manner I have to all women has supposed me in love with her and with a frankness I cannot but admire and a delicacy not to be described has let me know I am far from being indifferent to her I was at first extremely embarrassed but when I had reflected a moment I considered that the ladies though another may be the object always regard with a kind of complacency a man who loves as one who acknowledges the power of the sex whereas an indifferent is a kind of rebel to their empire I considered also that the confession of a prior inclination saves the most delicate vanity from being wounded and therefore determined to make her the confidant of my tenderness for Emily leaving her an opening to suppose that if my heart had been disengaged it could not have escaped her attractions I did this with all possible precaution and with every softening friendship and politeness could suggest she was shocked at my confession but soon recovered herself enough to tell me she was highly fluttered by this proof of my confidence and esteem that she believed me and to have only the more respect for a woman who by owning her partiality had told me she considered me not only as the most amiable but the most noble of my sex that she had heard no love was so tender as that which was the child of friendship but that of this she was convinced that no friendship was so tender as that which was the child of love that she offered me this tender this lively friendship and would for the future find her happiness in the consideration of mine do you know my dear that since this confession I feel a kind of tenderness for her to which I cannot give a name it is not love for I love I idolize another but it is softer and more pleasing as well as more animated than friendship you cannot conceive what pleasure I find in her conversation she has an admirable understanding of feeling heart and a mixture of softness and spirit in her manner which is peculiarly pleasing to men my Emily will love her I must bring them acquainted she promises to come to Quebec in May I shall be happy to show her every attention when there I've seen the lands and I'm pleased with them I believe this will be my residence if Emily as I cannot avoid hoping will make me happy I shall declare myself as soon as I return but must continue here a few days longer I shall not be less pleased with this situation for it's being so near Madame de Roche in whom Emily will find a friend worthy of her esteem and an entertaining lively companion adieu my dear Lucy your affectionate at Rivers I have fixed on the loveliest spot on earth on which to build a house for my mother do I not expect too much in fancy she will follow me hither letter 86 to Miss Rivers Clarkes Street March 13 still with Madame de Roche appearances are rather against him you must own Lucy but I will not say all I think to you poor Emily we dispute continually for she will persist in defending his conduct she says he has a right to marry whoever he pleases that her loving him is no tie upon his honor especially as he does not even know of this preference that she ought only to blame the weakness of her own heart which has betrayed her into a false belief that their tenderness was mutual this is pretty talking but he has done everything to convince her of his feeling the strongest passion for her except making a formal declaration she talks of returning to England the moment the river is open indeed if your brother marries it is the only step left her to take I almost wish now she had married Sir George she would have had all the do say of marriage and as to love I begin to think men incapable of feeling it some of them can indeed talk well on the subject but self interest and vanity are the real passions of their souls I detest the whole sex adieu a fair more letter 87 to the Earl of Blanc c'est la vie March 13th my lord I generally distrust my own opinion when it differs from your lordships but in this instance I am most certainly in the right allow me to say nothing can be more ill judged than your lordship's design of retiring into a small circle from that world of which you have so long been one of the most brilliant ornaments what you say of the disagreeableness of age is by no means applicable to your lordship nothing is in this respect so fallible as the parish register why should any man retire from society whilst he is capable of contributing to the pleasures of it wit, vivacity, good nature and politeness give an eternal youth as stupidity and moroseness a premature old age without a thousandth part of the lordship shining qualities I think myself much younger than half the boys about me merely because I have more good nature and a stronger desire of pleasing my daughter is much honored by your lordship's inquiries she is bell firmore still addressed by a gentleman who is extremely agreeable to me and I believe not less so to her I however know too well the free spirit of woman of which she has her full share to let bell know I approve her choice I'm even in doubt whether it would not be good policy to seem to dislike the match in order to secure her consent there's something very pleasing to a young girl in opposing the will of her father to speak truth I'm a little out of humor with her at present for having contributed and I believe entirely from a spirit of opposition to me to break a match on which I had extremely set my heart the lady was the niece of my particular friend and one of the most lovely and deserving women I ever knew the gentleman very worthy with an agreeable indeed a very handsome person and a fortune which with those who know the world would have compensated for the want of most other advantages the fair lady after an engagement of two years took a whim that there was no happiness in marriage without being madly in love and that her passion was not sufficiently romantic which piece of folly my rebel encouraged her and the affair broke off in a manner which has brought on her the imputation of having given way to an idle prepossession in favor of another your lordship will excuse my talking on a subject very near my heart though uninteresting to you I have too often experienced your lordship's indulgence to doubt it on this occasion your good natured philosophy will tell you much fewer people talk or write to amuse or inform their friends than to give way to the feelings of their own hearts or indulge in the burning passion of the moment in my next I will endeavor in the best manner I can to obey your lordship's commands in regards to the political and religious state of Canada I will make a point of getting the best information possible what I have yet seen has been only the surface I have the honor to be my lord your lordship's etc William Firmwall letter 88 to Miss Rivers Claude's street Cillory, March 16 Monday your brother is come back and has been here he came after dinner yesterday my Emily is more than woman I am proud of her behavior he entered with his usual impatient air she received him with a dignity which astonished me and disconcerted him there was a cool dispassionate indifference in her whole manner which I saw cut his vanity to the quick and for which he was by no means prepared on such an occasion I should have flirted violently with some other man and showed plainly I was peaked she judged much better I have only to wish it may last he is the fairest bouquet in nature for after all I am convinced he loves Emily he stayed a very little time and has not been here this morning he may pout if he pleases but I flatter myself we shall hold out the longest nine o'clock he came to dine we kept our state all dinner time he begged a moment's conversation which we used but with a timid air that makes me begin to fear we shall beat a parley he is at this moment gone and Emily retired to her apartment on pretense of indisposition I am afraid she is a foolish girl half hour after six it will not do Lucy I found her in tears at the window following rivers as carry-o with her eyes she turned to me with such a look in short my dear the weak the fond the fool the coward woman has prevailed over all her resolution her love is only the more violent for having been a moment restrained she is not equal to the task she has undertaken her resentment was concealed tenderness and has retaken its first form I am sorry to find there is not one wise woman in the world but myself past ten I have been with her again she seemed a little calmer I commended her spirit she disavowed it was peevish with me angry with herself said she had acted in a manner unworthy her character accused herself of caprice artifice and cruelty said she ought to have seen him, if not alone yet with me only that it was natural he should be surprised at a reception so inconsistent with true friendship and therefore that he should wish an explanation her rivers and why not madame Darosha's rivers was incapable of acting otherwise than as became the best and most tender of mankind and that therefore she ought not to have suffered a whisper injurious to his honour that I had meant well but had by depriving her of rivers as friendship which she had lost her haughty behaviour destroyed all the happiness of her life to be sure your poor bell is always to blame but if ever I intermeddle between lovers again Lucy I am sure she was ten times more angry with him than I was but this it is to be too warm in the interest of our friends adieu till tomorrow yours a fair more I can only say that if Fitzgerald had visited a handsome rich French widow and stayed with her ten days tête-à-tête in the country without my permission oh heavens here is mon chef hooray I must hide my letter bonsoir letter 89 to Miss Rivers Clark's street Quebec March 6 I cannot account my dear for what has happened to me I left Madame de Roche full of the warm and patience of love and flew to my Emily at Soleri I was recieved with a disdainful coldness which I did not think had been in her nature in which has shocked me beyond all expression I went again today and met with the same reception I even saw my presence was painful to her therefore shortened my visit and if I have resolution to persevere I cannot go again till invited by Captain Farmer in form I could bear anything but to lose her affection my whole heart was set upon her I had every reason to believe myself dear to her can Caprice find a place in that bosom which is the abode of every virtue I must have been misrepresented to her or surely this could not have happened I will wait tomorrow and if I hear nothing will write to her and ask an explanation she refused me a verbal one today though I beg to speak with her only for a moment Tuesday I have been asked on a little writing party and as I cannot go to Soleri have accepted it it will amuse my present anxiety I am to drive mademoiselle Clairot a very pretty French lady this is however of no consequence for my eyes see nothing lovely but Emily adieu your affectionate attachment at rivers let her mind he to miss rivers clarges street ciliary Wednesday morning poor Emily is to meet with perpetual mortification we have been carioling with Fitzgerald and my father and coming back met your brother driving mademoiselle Clairot Emily trembled turned pale and scarce returned rivers bow I never saw poor little girl so in love she is amazingly altered within the last fortnight two o'clock a letter from Mrs. Melmouth I send you a copy of it with this adieu yours a fair more letter 91 to miss Montague at Soleri Montreal March 19 if you are not absolutely resolved on destruction my dear Emily it is yet in your power to retrieve the false step you have made Sir George, whose good nature is in this instance almost without example has been prevailed on by Mr. Melmouth to consent I should write to you before he leaves Montreal and again offer you his hand though rejected in a manner so very mortifying both to vanity and love he gives you a fortnight to consider his offer at the end of which if you refuse him he sets out and over the lakes be assured the man for whom it is to blame you have acted this imprudent part is so far from returning your affection that he is at this moment addressing another I mean Madame Desroches a near relation of whose assured me that there was an attachment between them indeed it is impossible he could have thought of a woman whose fortune is as small as his own men Miss Montague are not the romantic beings you seem to suppose them you will not find many Sir George Claytons I beg as early an answer as is consistent with the attention so important a proposal requires as a compliment to a passion so generous and disinterested as that of Sir George I am my dear Emily your affectionate friend he Melmoth letter 92 to Mrs. Melmoth at Montreal Salieri March 19th I am sorry my dear madam you should know so little of my heart as to suppose it possible I could have broken my engagements with Sir George for many motive but the full conviction of my wanting that tender affection for him and that lively taste for his conversation which alone could have ensured either his felicity or my own happy is it for both that I discovered this before it was too late it was a very unpleasing circumstance even under an intention only of marrying him to find my friendship stronger for another what then would it have been under the most sacred of all engagements that of marriage what wretchedness would have been the portion of both had timidity, decorum, or false horror carried me with this partiality in my heart to fulfill those views entered in too from compliance to my family and continued from a false idea of propriety and weak fear of the censures of the world the same reason therefore still subsiding nay being every moment stronger from a fuller conviction of the merit of him my heart prefers in spite of me to Sir George our union is more impossible than ever I am however obliged to you and Major Melmoth for your zeal to serve me though you must permit me to call it a mistaken one and to Sir George for a concession which I own I should not have made in his situation in which I can only suppose the effect of Major Melmoth's persuasions which he might suppose were known to me and an imagination that my sentiments for him were changed assure him of my esteem though love is not in my power as Colonel Rivers never gave me the remotest reason to suppose him more than my friend I have not the least right to disapprove of his marrying on the contrary as his friend I ought to wish him a connexion which I am told is greatly to his advantage to prevent all future importunity painful to me and all circumstances considered degrading to Sir George whose honour is very dear to me though I am obliged to refuse him that hand which he surely cannot wish to receive without my heart I am compelled to say that without an idea of ever being united to Colonel Rivers I will never marry another man where I never again to behold him where he even the husband of another my tenderness my tenderness as innocent as it is lively would never cease nor would I give up the refined delight of loving him independently of any hope of being beloved for any advantage in the power of fortune to bestow these being my sentiments sentiments which no time can alter they cannot be too soon known to Sir George I would not one hour keep him in suspense in a point which the step seems to say is of consequence to his happiness tell him I entreat him to forget me and to come into views which will make his mother and I have no doubt himself happier than a marriage with a woman whose chief merit is that very sincerity of heart which obliges her to refuse him I am madame your affectionate etc. Emily Montague letter 93 to Miss Rivers Clarkes street Cillory Thursday your brother dines here today by my father's invitation I am afraid it will be but an awkward party Emily is at this moment an exceeding fine model for a statue of tender melancholy her anger is gone not a trace remaining Tis sorrow but the most beautiful sorrow I ever beheld she is all grief for having offended the dear man I am out of patience with this look it is so flattering to him I could beat her for it I cannot bear his vanity should be so gratified I wanted her to treat him with a saucy unconcerned flippant air but her whole appearance is gentle tender I had almost said supplicating I am ashamed of the folly of my whole sex oh that I could today inspire her with a little of my spirit she is a poor, tame household dove and there is no making anything of her eleven o'clock for my shepherd is kind and my heart is at ease what fools women are Lucy he took her hand expressed concern for her health softened the tone of his voice looked a few civil things with those expressive lying eyes of his and without one word of explanation all was forgot in a moment good night yours a fair more heavens the fellow is here has followed me to my dressing room was ever anything so confident these modest men have ten times the assurance of your impudent fellows I believe absolutely he is going to make love to me tis a critical hour Lucy one's friend of a lover is really a temptation twelve o'clock the dear man is gone and has made all up he insisted on my explaining the reasons of the cold reception he had met with which you know was impossible without betraying the secret of poor Emily's little foolish heart I however contrived to let him know we were a little peaked at his going without seeing us and that we were something inclined to be jealous of his friendship for Madame de Roche he made a pretty decent defense and though I don't absolutely acquit him of coquetry yet upon the whole I think I forgive him he loves Emily which is great merit with me I am only sorry they are two such poor devils it is next to impossible they should ever come together I think I am not angry now as to Emily her eyes dance with pleasure she has not the same countenance as in the morning this love is the finest cosmetic in the world after all he is a charming fellow and has eyes Lucy heaven be praised he never pointed their fire at me adieu I will try to sleep yours a fair marre letter 94 to Miss Rivers Quadra Street Quebec March 20th the coldness of which I complained my dear Lucy in regard to Emily there was a very loose flattering circumstance which could have happened I will not say it was the effect of jealousy but it certainly was of a delicacy of affection which extremely resembles it never did she appear so lovely as yesterday never did she display such variety of loveliness there was a something in her look when I first addressed her on entering the room touching beyond all words a certain in man to see a mood but then must a lover have felt I had the pleasure after having been in the room a few moments to see this charming langur changed to a joy which animated her whole form and of which I was so happy as to believe myself the cause my eyes had told her all that passed in my heart hers had showed me plainly they understood their language we were standing at a window at some little distance from the rest of the company when I took of hinting my concern at having though without knowing it offended her she blushed she looked down she again raised her lovely eyes they met mine she sighed I took her hand she withdrew it but not in anger a smile like that of the poets he be told me I was forgiven there is no describing what then passed in my soul with what difficulty did I restrain my transports never before did I really know love what I had felt even for her was cold to that enchanting that impassioned moment she is a thousand times dear to me than life my Lucy I cannot live without her I contrive before I left Celery to speak to bell firmer on the subject of Emily's reception of me she did not fully explain herself but she convinced me hatred had no part in her resentment I'm going again this afternoon every hour not passed with her is lost I take a favorable occasion of telling her the whole happiness of my life depends on her tenderness before I write again my fate will possibly be determined with every reason to hope the timidity inseverable from love makes me dread a full explanation of my sentiments if her native softness should have deceived me but I will not study to be unhappy adieu your affectionate Ed Rivers.